Posts tagged spending
Under one president, real per capita government spending [three years in] was 14.4 percent higher than four years previously; under the other, less than half as much, just 6.4 percent.
O.K., by now many readers have probably figured out the trick here: Reagan, not Obama, was the big spender.
What if families handled finances like the federal government does?
THEN I GUESS YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN THAT MASSIVE PAY CUT IN 2001 AND 2003 AND AGAIN IN 2010, RIGHT, DAD?!
I love this elegant bit of nonsense that equates government spending to personal spending. And by “love,” I mean “can’t stand.”
Maybe some Tumblrs who are far, far smarter than I am about economic and policy stuff like this can better explain how a central bank is different than my checking account. I’ll start:
Where does the money come from? Me: Billing hours, and occasionally executing project work based on a pre-negotiated fee. In brief: from performing labor. Government: from taxes, which debt hawks don’t like.
How to get more of it? Me: Continue to do good work, and/or find new companies to pay me in exchange for the things I’m good at. Government: I guess this is sort of tricky. Tax reform, stimulus spending, incentives for economically beneficial behavior, and other sensible policy can create more revenue. So can borrowing. Debt hawks would have Americans believe that government borrowing is the same as credit-card spending. Which means I need to call American Express to ask them about fixing my rate of interest to the Treasury’s yield curve. /snark
What does it fund? Me: A pretty nice apartment, groceries, artwork and books that I enjoy having, necessities that keep me looking fairly presentable in public, etc. In brief: things I need and also things I want. Government: Wildly popular insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and also a terribly powerful and globally influential military. To make even a dent in spending, one of those three things needs to be cut. Pick one, debt hawks. Please, bloody pick one!
I once had a dog who thought he was the fiercest thing in the county. He wasn’t the brightest dog in the world. I brought him to a friend’s farm where he spied a large bull far off in the corner of a large field. From that vantage point the bull didn’t look very big, so my dog took off after it — howling and yelling to the skies. But as he got closer to the bull, I could see him slowing way down, and his howling turned into a whine. And by the time he came within five feet of the bull he skidded to a stop and turned silent. When the bull looked in his direction, my dog put his tail between his legs and ran.
I can say she has at least three factual errors in a paragraph that only includes three facts, and that the National Review published it.
[I]f there are people getting oxygen masks to stay alive, I don’t want to cut that budget.
A blog by Andrew Graham, a ghostwriter and media adviser in New York City. Don't take it too seriously.
GMail: andrewgraham.nyc
